Harrow Way travelled to Alton Leisure Centre on Thursday to represent the Mountbatten Partnership in the Key Stage 3 Girls Badminton county semi-final.
Despite a thorough warm up, the girls started their first match against Calthorpe Park in a rather sluggish and unfocused manor. Four close defeats had meant that this match was already lost before the first win for the girls by Cassie Weeks and Maddie Loftus in their doubles.
After a tactical team talk the girls approached the next match against Costello with more determination. Abby Wheeler lost another close singles match and after the doubles pairing of Chelsey Renshaw and Maddie Loftus failed to add a game, it was 3 games from 3 needed to win the match. Cassie won her singles 15-14 and paired up with Maddie for a 15-1 victory, but the final pairing couldn’t quite muster up the last win and so lost the match 3-2.
With nothing to play for but pride, the girls took on the formidable Thornden School, who, with 4 county players, had not dropped a game. Abby lost her singles against an outstanding opponent and Maddie and Chelsey played a superb doubles game narrowly losing 15-13. Game of the day was played by Cassie who mustered up an excellent 15-12 win over their 2nd rank player. Sadly, no further wins for the girls although their pride was definitely restored by an excellent match.
A fun day was had by all although the girls left with a tinge of regret not to have performed a little better, but have learnt a lot for the future. We look forward to seeing them compete for their place in the Key Stage 4 team next year.